AreJay711 wrote:You said in you last thread that all of your clerks were very good or superstars. I realize it varies by judge, but do you have any general advice on how to be effective as a clerk? What qualities made your clerks good?
First of all, when I was DA and had 80 employees, I learned that I couldn't go far wrong if I just identified and hired the best person available at the time a vacancy occurred and that philosophy has stood me in good stead by generally getting me some high quality employees over the years and so I have continued to follow it as a judge.
Judicial clerkships are highly sought after so it is a buyer's market for the judges doing the hiring. Despite a large pool to choose from, and although it is more work for me, I spend more time than most appellate judges on the hiring process. You should recognize that every judge is different so your mileage may vary, but with that disclaimer, here is a quick breakdown of the process I use to hire clerks:
I accumulate somewhere around a hundred letters enclosing resumes a year, most are unsolicited. I start the official process usually between mid-September to the beginning of October by posting a notice on my court's employment website and notifying the career services offices of all of my state's law schools that I am looking and those interested should send me a cover letter enclosing a resume, law school transcript, writing sample, state employment application and references and/or recommendations.
I accept applications for around 30 days and then I sit down with my clerks and we look through all the stuff submitted and try to whittle the group down to 20 people we will interview. In making this determination, I look for people with solid academic credentials, evidence of a good work ethic and their grades, particularly in the "skills" courses involving writing or oral presentation such as legal writing, trial and/or appellate advocacy and any extracurricular activities involving those skills such a Moot Court or a Trial Advocacy team. I don't care about law review because the transcript will tell me if they are smart or not. I also look at what they like to do outside of studying law because I also want to know what kind of person they are. Good candidates who meet these criteria are plentiful so it can be tough to get the number down to 20. Although I prefer that the candidates interview in my chambers face to face with my current chambers staff sitting in, I will often conduct an interview via video conference if it is not convenient for the applicant to come to me. In my experience, the interviews don't tell me who the best candidate is but they often tell me who it isn't.
After all the interviews are completed, I sit down with my staff (because they know me well and have a good feel for who will or won't fit in with my personality and that of the other chambers staff). We discuss the credentials and our impressions of the interviewees among ourselves and try to reach a consensus on who the top five candidates are.
Because writing samples may or may not represent the sole work of the applicant, the top five applicants are invited to do a writing exercise. This can be done either in my chambers (we try to set them up around the fall/Christmas break for the students unable to make it any other time) or at their law school if the school's career services office agrees to supervise it and follow my instructions. The applicants are given copies of the briefs in a very simple single issue case. They are also given copies of two applicable cases and instructed that no additional research is either required or permitted. They are then given three hours to put together a bench memo analyzing the issue. I got this idea from a close friend and former member of my Court who is now a federal COA judge. This extra effort in the hiring process can be very revealing regarding how the finalists organize and analyze the issue under pressure. One candidate simply got up and walked out of the office leaving behind a note that said "I just can't do this but I am still interested in the job." Needless to say, she didn't get it.
The bench memo is turned in to my paralegal who removes the name and any other identifying information with respect to the applicant and assigns it a number and then gives them all to my clerks and I to review anonymously. We then review all the bench memos and separately rank them without knowing who the author is and without discussing the candidates among ourselves. When that is done, my clerks and I get together and compare notes to see how close we came to each other in ranking the bench memos (we usually are pretty consistent). After that, my paralegal will tell us which applicant wrote which bench memo and then we discuss all the candidates one last time after which I make a final decision and an offer to the candidate I believe to be the best of the group.
The result of all this is, as you noted, law clerks ranging from very good to superstar so I regard the lengthy process we use as worth the trouble.
As far as being effective as a clerk is concerned, that is easy. Meet the deadlines for getting the work done. Don't be afraid to talk to your judge and ask questions if you don't understand something (I view a clerkship as a learning opportunity for young lawyers and an opportunity for me to pay forward some of what I learned from judges in my career), don't be afraid to tell your judge if you disagree with him/her (but be prepared to defend your analysis) and just generally try to make your judge look good.